The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7303 p740
12 June 2004

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· Council election
· Paracetamol
· Repeat dispensing
· Free movement in Europe
· The industry

Letters to the Editor

The industry

Globalisation may have reduced need for UK graduates

From Mr D. L. Norris, MRPharmS

I read with surprise the item regarding concerns over graduate shortages in the pharmaceutical industry (PJ, 29 May, p664). I can only comment on the situation relating to manufacturing operations, in which I have worked for over 30 years in the UK and South Africa.

Due to the process of rationalisation, consolidation and globalisation that started in the 1980s within the multinationals, I would estimate that only half the number of active manufacturing sites now exist in the UK compared with in the early 1970s.

If this trend continues, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry soon may not have to worry at all about recruiting science graduates, including pharmacists, into the industry, since most production activities will have been relocated to areas characterised by an abundance of cheap labour and a near absence of effective employment legislation.

David Norris
Quorn, Leicestershire

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